21 comments:

It seems Judge Dennis (not the menace), took 7 minutes to point out that the AMOUNT of drugs found in this lady's truck didn't matter.

In other words, it could have been a few grains of rice. Or a truckload of rice. Doesn't matter.

You can't tell that the owner of the truck was in a drug distribution business.

Heck, Dennis could have pointed to the tires. And, good used car salesman would have pointed to the tires! See? If the tires were full of hot air ... they weren't as efficient as if they were low on air.

And, after about 7 minutes of this grotesque pitch ... I think "SHUT THE FUCK UP" ... OR GET THE HELL OUT ... were absolutely realistic remarks! YEA. Made by a woman!

I guess Dennis never saw or heard a woman tell him to leave a room. Even if his pants were down around his ankles.

But this is a corker of an insight. I hope law students everywhere ... get to see this stuff. Because it puts bullshit into perspective, like nobody's business.

I thought the 9th was the "clown circuit?" Even though I'm in love with Alex Kozinski.

Since this circuit is in Texas, does Perry have a view?

Can we bet that the drug lady stays convicted? (Judge Dennis can visit her in jail.)

Lebowitz pointed out though, that IF she were a judge. And, they put her up on the Supreme Court. She'd have no trouble make up her mind about a decision. She could give you a decision so quick, you could take it like a ball. And, run with it.

Here?

You're putting a woman in a hot robe. Up in a chair without a TV in front of it. And, she has to make believe she's attentive ... As this liberal judge tied up a lawyer for SEVEN MINUTES ... trying to affirm that the QUANTITY OF DRUGS that were on the truck ... in this woman's possession ...

AFTER SHE'S ALREADY CONVICTED ... shouldn't matter.

(Circuit courts, by the way, even if you're a novice, aren't involved with weighing the evidence used to convict. That's the role of the JURORS. You can even look this up on our US Constitution. It's spelled out. "JURORS ARE THE FINDERS OF FACT.")

After 7 minutes of this questioning garbage ... the chief judge lost her temper.

Losing one's temper is never a great idea.

Telling a man he had to "leave the room" is also a bad idea ... Which every woman learns when she sees a man standing there with his pants around his ankles.)

"Choke-hold" doesn't work either.

Maybe, we need a dictionary of terms suggesting WHAT NOT TO USE ... under given circumstances.

If it was me? I'd have told him to go fly out the window! But, that, too, would have been wrong.

The Fifth Circuit actually isn't based in Texas, but in New Orleans, Louisiana, and it includes Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Judge Dennis was born in 1936; a Clinton appointee to the Fifth Circuit in 1995, he spent the two decades before that as a member of the Louisiana Supreme Court, and he'd been a Louisiana politician before that. Chief Judge Jones, a Reagan appointee born in 1949, is roughly a generation younger, but she's been on the Fifth Circuit for 10 more years than Judge Dennis, and her career before that appointment was as a partner in a noted BigLaw firm in Houston. Of different generations, politics, and backgrounds, nevertheless, Chief Judge Jones and Judge Dennis have both served together for a long, long time.

In the tranquil environs of the federal appellate courts, it is not uncommon to encounter a judge who's run a bit long or ventured too far down a particular rabbit trail at oral arguments. But any sort of interruption or rebuke of another panel member by the presiding judge of the panel, be that the chief judge or just the most senior member of the panel, is uncommon.

It would be safer and more interesting if judges interacted with each other through virtual environments "peopled" by avatars. Each judge would have an avatar of his own design. Judges could act out how they feel about each other with no real world consequences (such as assault charges).

Judges could also choose to install behavioral filters in their avatar that would filter out any behavior/communication that they might regret later (boring but maybe more practical).

When I worked at Adam's Extract Company, we would sometimes have meetings in which Mr. Adams (Sr.) would completely loose the plot (mostly because he was 80 yrs old) and we would have to sit through just this kind of "I don't understand" business that Judge Dennis is perpetrating.We all ended up repeating the same things over and over to him and he was still incapable of understanding (dementia?) and the next day he would be a lot better all of a sudden-like.Nice of Judge Jones to reign him in, though it would have been better for all of them if she had been able to do it before he beclowned himself.